11 September 2009
Ian Johnston, Chief Executive Asia Pacfic, SWIFT |
Ian Johnston was appointed Head of the Asia Pacific region for SWIFT in September 2007, having joined SWIFT in 1993. An Australian national and resident, he spoke to SWIFT@Sibos about the cooperative’s involvement in the region and his expectations for Sibos.
How has SWIFT’s involvement in the Asian region advanced since Sibos in Sydney?
Quite a bit has changed for SWIFT – and our community here – since Sibos last came to the region in 2006. For SWIFT in Asia, it’s been a period of significant expansion. A strong customer focus has seen the addition of offices in Mumbai, Seoul and Shanghai plus a new Asian central control centre in Hong Kong. We’ve grown our FIN traffic by nearly 40% from 2006 to 2008 and added new customers from across the spectrum.
Despite the downturn, 2009 could go close to matching 2008!
We have not been immune to the global slowdown – none of our customers or partners has – but we are recognised as an important contributor to the growth and development of both domestic and regional financial markets. Whether we’re in Japan supporting them to use international standards to stimulate expansion of the domestic market or whether we’re working with emerging markets like Vietnam and Indonesia to ensure best practice and interoperability across their market infrastructures, our customers rely on SWIFT as necessary and valuable. Make sure you find out exactly how that’s happening while you’re here at Sibos!
“The opportunity here in Asia is that it will become an economic powerhouse during this century. We are in the right place at the right time, and our challenge is to respond to that opportunity in the right way.”
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Beyond facilitating the event, what do you think your community expects of SWIFT itself at Sibos?
Not to be biased, but we really think they expect to learn more about Asia and how SWIFT is helping them grow their businesses in this vibrant region. The Asian countries were not hit as hard by the global economic crisis and we expect them to come out of it more quickly. So our Big Issue debate on Tuesday morning and the “Time for Asia to Save itself” session on Tuesday afternoon will talk about where the opportunities are now and what still needs to be done to ensure that the Asian financial industry is strong and healthy. And while our delegates are here in Hong Kong, they should take the time to learn more about Asia by coming to our Outlook sessions dedicated to China, to India and to Japan as well as our sessions covering trade finance and ASEAN integration.
Beyond that, our community wants to know about the progress we’ve made with corporates, especially the mid-sized corporates who can now join via new SCORE criteria. Our customers put corporates at the top of the agenda and that’s an area where they see SWIFT as helping them focus on value-added services rather than infrastructure. SWIFT for investment managers and how standards continue to evolve, including with XML, are also special areas of interest this year.
Those are just a few areas to highlight. Really, you can’t separate Sibos from SWIFT and vice versa. While this event is about the larger SWIFT community, we’re at the heart of everything, supporting and facilitating dialogue and growth across the global financial community.
“Take advantage of the fact that the global financial industry is in one place for the next week and meet with and engage with as many people as you can. It’s worth more than six months’ of travelling and meetings.”
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What innovations are you personally excited about at this year’s Sibos?
I love that we’re taking over the entire conference centre and making rooms available to our customers and partners here onsite. In previous years, many banks would rent out hotel and other conference facilities to hold meetings while here at Sibos. It made sense that they would hold meetings during Sibos week, since ‘everyone’ was here. But now we don’t have to waste time travelling around the city and can take advantage of the incredible energy that we have here at the centre, where for a week we create a real ‘global village’ of our own.
After all, look at the exhibitors we have in the sold-out exhibition, including the top Chinese banks and partners and a new group of Vietnamese banks doing a pavilion for the first time, as well as vendors and financial institutions from around the globe. I’m also really pleased that we have a formal media partnership framework in place at this Sibos for the first time ever. Look at those names: Financial Times Asia, Bloomberg TV, The Asian Banker, Meettheboss.com, The South China Morning Post, Finextra, Banking Technology and so many more top quality media from around the world who are here at Sibos because that’s where the global financial community is.
As the Chief Executive for the AP region for SWIFT, what challenges/ opportunities do you face compared to your colleagues in EMEA and Americas?
That’s a tough question! First, the three regions are culturally, politically and economically very different from each other. This is true between the regions, but at the same time each of us deals with significant diversity within our regions. I’d say that the opportunity here in Asia is that it will become an economic powerhouse during this century. We are in the right place at the right time, and our challenge is to respond to that opportunity in the right way.
Any advice for those delegates coming to Hong Kong for their first Sibos?
Don’t waste a minute. It’s a full programme in the conference and the exhibition is packed. Take advantage of the fact that the global financial industry is in one place for the next week and meet with and engage with as many people as you can. It’s worth more than six months’ of travelling and meetings. Most important, take time in the evenings and after Sibos to enjoy all the delights that this truly world city of Hong Kong has to offer.
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